New to New Vegas, which mods to use? : Fallout: New Vegas

» Tue May 01, 2012 8:37 pm

Hi,

I've been a big fan of Fallout 3 and played with quite a couple of mods. When New Vegas came out I decided to not play the vanilla because after the richness of the mods it would probably be a disappointment.
So here I am, a bit late to the party I guess :happy:

Here to ask one simple question: which are the best mods out there?

In Fallout 3 the important mods I used were the Wanderers Edition (overhaul) and Marts Mutant Mod (adding more wildlife and new mobs), along with adding a couple other features like an underground base etc..

What are your suggestions on the top mods, and why?
Since I've got a new computer this time around, I would also like a recommendation on a mod that improves the graphics/textures if possible. ^^

Thanks!

» Wed May 02, 2012 2:18 am

I've been wanting to get back into NV myself and I always check out these youtube videos, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-3c1a9cLL8&list=PL0E5E8CA384409B11&index=1&feature=plpp_video
he's started to redo them recently so I would say they are up to date.

» Tue May 01, 2012 2:56 pm

Thanks Winfrex. I've watched a few but they're quite long.

At the moment Im thinking about using the following mods:

Project Nevada
New Vegas Bounties I & II
Underground Hideout
A world of Pain
Nevada Skies (Though I'm not sure about the dark nights)
Weapon Retexture Project
City Defense Radio
EVE (Essential Visual Enchancements)

Regarding weapon mods, there are two on Nexus:
- Weapon Mods Expanded
- WME - Weapon Mod Expansion
Is there a big difference between these two and can I use both?

I'm still ensure about:
Electro-City.

The mod listed as "MCs_Texture_Pack_For_New_Vegas" on the Nexus website looks promissing as well. But won't it be anoying when other mods' textures are suddenly way less crispy?

Monster Mod: Anyone experience with this one? How does it relate to Marts Mutand Mod in Fallout 3?

The only thing missing so far is a HUD mod, I'm not sure if I need one but I'd like some opinions about the different HUD mods out there.

But my biggest question is about FOOK. Since I already plan on using Project Nevada (same creaters of Wanderers Edition in FO3 which was awesome) I'm not sure how compatible or useful another overhaul mod is.
Anyone here using (or tried) both that would like to share his experience?

» Wed May 02, 2012 5:41 am

Oh, both "Wasteland Defense" and "Real Time Settlers" also seem rather interesting. Can you install both without problems?
And which one do you guys think is better?

» Tue May 01, 2012 4:00 pm

Aagh so may options and questions, it's amazing

There are two mod managers I see, the good ol' FOMM and Nexus Mod Manager. Which one should I use?

» Tue May 01, 2012 11:31 pm

Aagh so may options and questions, its amazing :biggrin:

There are two mod managers I see, the good ol' FOMM and Nexus Mod Manager. Which one should I use?

I prefer FOMM, but that doesnt mean NMM is bad. Actually, I believe Kaburke is responsible for both New Vegas' FOMM as well as NMM.

Also, you really should check out http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1138795-wipzbeta-darnified-ui-nv/page__hl__darnified if you havent already. Incomplete compared to FO3's version, but still fuctional.

» Tue May 01, 2012 4:04 pm

For the weapon mods you don't want to use both at once because they will conflict with each other. I'd recommend recipes for weapon mods since it lets you make your own weapon mods and it works great with WMX, though I've been trying to find out which of the mods I'm using is conflicting with the WMX part of WMR. For HUD mods check out One HUD, Unified HUD Project, and The Mod Configuration Menu, the MCM is great for adjusting you mods in game! and Unified HUD Project will group all your HUD mods together. One HUD is Gophers three HUD mods packed together.

» Tue May 01, 2012 5:04 pm

Heres a list-
Project Nevada (Allows you to customize many things)
EVE (Makes energy weapons satisfying)
Robco Certified (Great for smart characters who don't want to rely on human companions)
Brotherhood and House Alliance (as name suggests, allows you to RP as a BoS member without having to avoid working with House)
Monstermod (Adds difficulty and proper feeling of survivival on the direct threat area)
More perks/More Traits (Better roleplaying)
Follower Home Marker- (Good for setting your own home, due to allowing you to fire companions in a way that sends them to a set cell/location)
Courier IFF Broadcaster- (allows you to use faction armor without facition effect, IE no hate or temporarly losing rep with your chosen faction)
IWS- makes the game feel more alive
BAN Dupe This- (Good for setting up a "squad" or not having to scavenge forever when using mods like Robco Certified)
Roleplay Start- (Allows you to choose specific start locations. (note about the brotherhood: you still need to perform the quests to join them))

» Wed May 02, 2012 3:51 am

Here is a list.
Companion Infinite Ammo
RobCo Certified
More Perks
Warzones
Centered 3rd Person Camera
Classic Fallout New Vegas Weapons
New Vegas Restoration
Mikoto Beauty
Unlimited Companions
Fallout 1 and 2 Ambient Music
Weapon Mod Menu
NCR Rearment
Caesar New Regime
NVEC(Bug fixes, highly recommended)

Some of the other users already covered some. Have Fun!

» Tue May 01, 2012 4:23 pm

Your list looks pretty good. Some alternatives:

http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=45652 is strictly required. If you haven't installed http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=42507 (and why not?), get http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=36730. You can then turn off the FoNV's (buggy) autosave and quicksave and have CASM provide both features for you.
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=44027 has nicely balanced traits and perks along with a bunch of other neat changes. It's also modular, so pick and choose as you wish.
JE Sawyer - FoNV project director/game designer - has his own mod at http://twofoldsilence.diogenes-lamp.info/2012/01/jsawyeresp-v3.html. I'm using this and recommend it very highly: he fixes a bunch of stuff, rebalances weapons and armor to be harder, enhances hardcoe mode. Encumbrance and HP are lower - the latter may be annoying to many, but I find it quite fun once I got used to it.
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=37172 is a great quest mod by Puce Moose. http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=35015 is another excellent modular collection of tweaks.
XFO's http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=39058 has made combat more interesting. http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=40097 seems to be used a lot, too, though I've yet to try it myself.
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=42180 is a superb weather/lighting mod. It's great out of the box. I've used Nevada Skies as well and liked it, too, but it required more tweaks. http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=40179 provides excellent tweak recipes - I used a couple of them before settling on Project Reality. Also check out http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=37130.
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=34744 is another must-have.
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=43135 is superb. The Medium version looks great and doesn't impose a burden on my laptop system. As is http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=42028. You can use them together by install NMC first and then Poco Bueno - I think NMC's is all you need and it's the most comprehensive.
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=42956 gives you forced fullscreen mode - alt-tab in and out as you wish, hugely useful.
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=44515 should really have been in the core game.
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=43192 improves the look of various armors and doesn't add a bunch of unbalanced stuff unless you ask it to.
Some immersion enhancers: http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=42033, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=45352 (best of the lot, imo), http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=45478, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=40285, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=37090, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=36902, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=36441
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=40136, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=37490 and Lombard Station are all nice and compact player homes. I'm using that last at the moment and quite like it. You'll need to search the Something Awful forums to get hold of Lombard Station (look for the "let's put boobs on this molerat" thread .
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=34840 is a useful add on for a hardcoe run through.
Other cool radio/music: http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=35330, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=45023, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=44139, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=35061, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=39004 (all music, not a radio station).
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=43030 fixes a very annoying bug that makes those assassins a lot harder than they should ever have been at lower levels. I still remember my first run-in with Legion Assassins as the hardest fight of the game and didn't know why until I found this mod that fixed the underlying issue.

Have fun!

» Wed May 02, 2012 12:27 am

...well then. Think v1ld said it all. What he said, have fun! Take some time to organize your load order, though!

» Tue May 01, 2012 2:58 pm

Thanks guys, I'll take a look at those mods as well. The Willow companion mod seems rather interesting as well.
At the moment I'm not looking for special quests though since the whole game is new (and all DLC) so that should be enough content for now.

As for the Real Time Settler or Wasteland Defense, I think I'll add those later once I'm more 'settled in'. Starting a settlement at level 1 doesn't seem appropriate anyway.

...well then. Think v1ld said it all. What he said, have fun! Take some time to organize your load order, though!

Yes... hopefully it won't be a big problem. I downloaded all the mods and will start on the load order tomorrow. Are there any guides/forum posts that list the perfect order for most of the popular mods? That wouldn't help a lot.

» Tue May 01, 2012 9:02 pm

If you don't plan to already, use http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=35999 for the load order! The only downside is that the New Vegas BOSS masterlist stopped having an active maintainer around December, so some newer or reworked mods are not in the list. The good news is that http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=44745 makes it easy to provide your own load order rules that augment or override the BOSS masterlist.

BOSS just bumped to version 2.0 and some of it's file structure changed and you'll need to make a couple of tweaks so that other tools find files where they expect to.

FOMM/NMM have built-in support for BOSS. As does Wrye Flash, which I prefer for lots of reasons, but the learning curve's very steep unless you've already used Wrye Bash before - that said, it offers the most power of the bunch. It's Bashed Patch feature is all-powerful, subsuming the Merged Patch from FNVEdit (though FNVEdit is a superbly useful util, too). Flash/Bash also have the BAIN installer concept that makes it easy to see when mods have file conflicts and to then deal with them by re-ordering.

Wrye Flash pays off, but it's definitely a bunch of initial work to get familiar with it - but you'll be able to use it for all the other TES games, which is nice.

» Tue May 01, 2012 10:09 pm

Your list looks pretty good. Some alternatives:

Other cool radio/music: http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=35330, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=45023, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=44139, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=35061, http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=39004 (all music, not a radio station).

Have fun!

There is no fun without the
http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=34999 :stare:

It even lets you switch songs. :shifty:

» Wed May 02, 2012 2:42 am

Alright, at the moment I'm adding all the mods. Texture pack seemed to work.
Not 100% sure about Script extender and "Archive Invalidated".

I'm using the 4g script extender but I don't know the command to test if it works or not. They say "GetNVSEVersion" which gives me a correct reading when I'm using the normal .exe but the 4gb version must have either a different command or it's not working. Anyone have an idea how to check this? (What will happen to mods if it's not working?)

Also about the Archive thing.. the popular automatic program didn't work so I used: http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=37004
But once again, I did what it said but how can I be sure that it works correctly?

Thanks. I'll continue to test things. Probably will be at least a whole day because I actually get all mods running lol..

» Tue May 01, 2012 2:30 pm

Nevada skies works well. When using the Enchanced Shader mod however I don't notice *any* difference when I switch back through screenshots at the exact same point with the mod turned on and off in FOMM. :/

» Wed May 02, 2012 3:41 am

I'm using the 4g script extender but I don't know the command to test if it works or not.

The http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=34999 tells you if NVSE is working.

Edit
looks like this, if it is working
http://www.loaditup.de/698271-4qa8g9udan.html
Just saying. You can switch your songs with arrow down, left, right. This goes far beyond other radio stations. Even play modes are built in.

» Wed May 02, 2012 6:06 am

Thanks Gonos. I get that message (and able to use the hotkeys) for both Script Extender versions. I still don't know why Extended Shaders doesn't work though. They say you can also use a hotkey (shift F12) to switch it on and off but that doesn't work either.

It also doesn't show up in my load order list, but then again neither do texture packs and they work.

Edit: Ugh, got it working. Was messing about in the FOMM when the install method was simply dumping it in your main folder directly. >_<

Yay, onto the next problem! (probably

)

» Tue May 01, 2012 9:21 pm

So far so good. I keep adding more and more

testing them shortly before moving on (Like EVE's visuals).

In Fallout 3 I had to create a merged patch file or something. Do I have to do that again? If so: how?
It was so long ago and I used to a guide to do it lol. Any help is greatly appreciated.

» Tue May 01, 2012 8:26 pm

Oh, both "Wasteland Defense" and "Real Time Settlers" also seem rather interesting. Can you install both without problems?
And which one do you guys think is better?

You can use both together. Wasteland Defense was inspired by RTS and they were trying to make them work together. But I've found WD's sentry bots fire on RTS' brahmin, though the human guards don't. The wall options for RTS has more variety than WD.

» Tue May 01, 2012 5:14 pm

Finally done, my game is good to go. So excited. :smile:

This is my load order for anyone interested. If you notice any flaws please do tell.

Total plugins: 60

Spoiler

FalloutNV.esm
DeadMoney.esm
HonestHearts.esm
OldWorldBlues.esm
LonesomeRoad.esm
GunRunnersArsenal.esm
ClassicPack.esm
MercenaryPack.esm
TribalPack.esm
CaravanPack.esm
AWorldOfPain(Preview).esm
Project Nevada - Core.esm
Project Nevada - Equipment.esm
ELECTRO-CITY - CompletedWorkorders.esm
ELECTRO-CITY - Highways and Byways.esm
Project Nevada - Cyberware.esp
Project Nevada - Rebalance.esp
WME - DLCs.esm
WME - GRA.esm
MoMod.esm
Weapon Mod Expansion.esm
Centered 3rd Person Camera.esp
The Mod Configuration Menu.esp
UHNV.esp
UHNV-Dead Money.esp
UHNV-Honest Hearts.esp
UHNV-OWB.esp
UHNV-Lonesome Road.esp
Project Nevada - Dead Money.esp
Project Nevada - Honest Hearts.esp
Project Nevada - Old World Blues.esp
CONELRAD 640-1240.esp
NewVegasBounties.esp
NewVegasBountiesII.esp
NVWillow.esp
PipBoyLight.esp
Project Nevada - WME.esp
WME - DLCs.esp
WME - GRA - All Weapons.esp
WME - GRA - Arenovalis.esp
WME - GRA - Complete.esp
WME - GRA - Unique Integration.esp
WME - GRA - Just Guns.esp
WME - GRA - Vendor Reform.esp
WME - GRA - Weapon Integration.esp
WME - DLCs Arenovalis.esp
EVE FNV.esp
Project Nevada - EVE.esp
Nevada Skies.esp
Night Brightness Adjuster.esp
Project Nevada - Gun Runners' Arsenal.esp
Project Nevada - Lonesome Road.esp
AWOPDeadMoney.esp
AWOP DLC + GRA Conflict Error Fixes.esp
AWOP DLC Conflict Error Fixes.esp
AWOP NO DLC Conflict Error Fixes.esp
WME-AWOP-EVE Patch.esp
The Weapon Mod Menu.esp
Weapon Mod Expansion.esp
Merged Patch april 5th.esp

» Wed May 02, 2012 2:41 am

May I ask you what the problem with RACE is? Is it too complicated or sth?
I'm just asking since I'm very courious about. There seems to be sth that prevents people from using it, even though, it pulls radio clearly to a next level.
Is it the absence of a DJ?

» Tue May 01, 2012 3:57 pm

May I ask you what the problem with RACE is? Is it too complicated or sth?
I'm just asking since I'm very courious about. There seems to be sth that prevents people from using it, even though, it pulls radio clearly to a next level.
Is it the absence of a DJ?

For me personally, since I already picked a radio mod (the highest downloaded one) I didn't feel the need to pick another one. I just went with the masses, lame I know :smile:

But about the mod two things that don't fit in IMO:

- Being able to load your own songs.
It sounds nice on paper but I tried it in FO3 and ended up with some pop songs in the mix while exploring a nuclear apocalypse wasteland. It breaks immersion and I don't have any songs on my hard drive that fit the theme of the rest of the Fallout world. Even though I think it's great music, that's why I download more.

- Being able to switch/skip songs
It's a radio, not an MP3 player. Yes sometimes a particular song svcks and you don't really want to listen to it, but doing it anyway broadens your range and eventually I've ended up really liking some songs I did not before. If everything else fails I just turn off the radio for a while. It feels more like I'm part of the world if I can't control everything I guess...

» Tue May 01, 2012 6:46 pm

- Being able to load your own songs.
It sounds nice on paper but I tried it in FO3 and ended up with some pop songs in the mix while exploring a nuclear apocalypse wasteland. It breaks immersion and I don't have any songs on my hard drive that fit the theme of the rest of the Fallout world. Even though I think it's great music, that's why I download more.

There's a compilation of 150 songs available which pretty much fit the bill.

- Being able to switch/skip songs
It's a radio, not an MP3 player. Yes sometimes a particular song svcks and you don't really want to listen to it, but doing it anyway broadens your range and eventually I've ended up really liking some songs I did not before. If everything else fails I just turn off the radio for a while. It feels more like I'm part of the world if I can't control everything I guess...

True, with this mod the radio can be used like a mp3 player. I don't really see what the immersion killer is, you don't really need to switch. The songs of the compilation are jus great. But in my personal feel, after many many hours of gameplay, this ability is just a great improvement. Also the ability to turn the radio out and on by arrow-up is just very convenient.
Well, everyone has its own favours. At the end it just boils down to have fun with the game. So be it.

» Wed May 02, 2012 3:46 am

My laser pistol aim seems to be off. When I use the iron sight (which with the mods is now a animated reticle) it doesn't fire where the reticle is aiming.
Does anyone know if this is common (only for the pistol at the start?) or a interference with the different mods? If so, any way to fix it?